If ever the phrase 'Right Man, Right Place, Right Time' seemed ever so apt - it was when Torquay United paid Birmingham City £6,000 for a young striker by the name of Robin Stubbs in 1963.
After falling out with Blues manager Gil Merrick, Stubbs' days at St Andrews appeared to be numbered. He had previously broken into the Birmingham first team at the age of 19 and had featured in two Inter-Cities Fairs' Cup campaigns.
On his arrival at Torquay Railway Station, he was greeted by United director Tony Boyce - later chairman; and while Boyce drove him to Plainmoor to meet the then Torquay manager Eric Webber to discuss terms, he couldn't help but notice the town's natural beauty.
Once his move was finalised, Stubbs soon hit the ground running for United and formed a prolific strike partnership with local boy made good Tommy Northcott, who had returned to Plainmoor following spells with Cardiff City and Lincoln City.
Between them, the duo scored 37 goals in the 1963-64 season and then scored another 53 in the 1964-65 campaign. Stubbs' haul in 1964-65 also included two goals in United's famous 3-3 draw with a star-studded Tottenham Hotspur side featuring Jimmy Greaves, Alan Mullery and Pat Jennings amongst others. In addition to this, he was also on target in the replay at White Hart Lane which Torquay lost 5-1.
The summer of 1965 was to be one of change for United as the long serving Webber was sacked after 14 years in charge by Boyce, who had since taken over as chairman, and Irishman Frank O'Farrell was named as his successor after winning back-to-back Southern League titles with Weymouth.
O'Farrell, who had played for West Ham United and Preston North End in his career, soon turned United from inconsistent entertainers into serial winners as they won automatic promotion in the 1965-66 season, with Stubbs once again amongst the goals.
Such was his celebrity status in the town by that point when he married local beauty queen and daughter of local bookmaker Anthea Redfern - who would later find fame with the Generation Game - in 1967 he was considered as the bigger celebrity out of the pair.
On the field, life was still good for Stubbs as he helped United to obtain their highest league finish in their history in the 1967-68 season of fourth in the 'old' Division Three (now League One) as they narrowly missed out on promotion to the second tier for the first time ever.
He remained at Plainmoor under O'Farrell's successor Allan Brown - O'Farrell departed for Leicester City in 1968 - until he was sold to Bristol Rovers in 1970 for a fee of £12,000. After two seasons as the Pirates' leading scorer - he returned to Torquay in February 1972. However, he failed to recreate the magic of his first spell as United were relegated at the end of the 1971-72 season - bringing their six-year stay in Division Three to an end.
Sadly injuries meant that the 1972-73 season would prove to be his last as a Torquay player; he scored his final goal for United in February 1973 against Newport County, who he famously scored five times against in an 8-3 win for Torquay nearly ten years earlier in October 1963.
Following his retirement, Stubbs stayed in South Devon and remained close to the club. He even donned a Torquay United shirt one last time in a celebrity game before United's first ever appearance at Wembley in the 1989 Sherpa Van Trophy final against Bolton Wanderers.
In subsequent years other players have drawn certain parallels with Stubbs.
David Graham appeared for Glasgow Rangers in the UEFA Cup in the 1998-99 season before finding the back of the net 23 times as United won automatic promotion from Division Three under Leroy Rosenior in the 2003-04 season. Jamie Reid struck 32 times for the Gulls in the 2018-19 campaign, as United won the National League South title - becoming the first Torquay player to score 30 or more in a season since Stubbs.
But neither of them, or any other striker since for that matter, were held in the esteem that Stubbs, who still watches United in his role as life president, was.
Footnote: During Stubbs' first season at Plainmoor, he received his marching orders for an on field 'fracas' with future West Bromwich Albion, Manchester United, Sheffield Wednesday and Aston Villa manager Ron Atkinson, who also saw red.
